During mating with roosters, hens often sustain feather loss and cuts and gashes on their backs and shoulders. These injuries can lead to infection, picking, cannibalism, and death. In both backyard and commercial flocks, both hens and roosters often pick at each other, with the same dire results. Once a chicken suffers feather loss and wounds on its back, the chicken must either be removed from the flock or have its back covered to prevent further damage and possible infection.
Some protectors have been developed that establish a minimal level of protection for the chicken against injury. However, these devices fail to protect all of the susceptible areas of the hen's back.
The level of protection that is afforded will depend on the quality of the material and construction of the device. To date, no protector exists that meets the needs of chickens, including a proper fit for both less active (cooped or confined) and more active (free-ranging or pastured) chickens, accommodation of tail feathers, and protection of shoulders, without inhibiting the chicken's ability to spread its wings and fly.
A main predator of chickens in free-ranging or pastured flocks is the “chicken hawk.” Although it may be impossible to completely protect a chicken from birds of prey, no current protector offers even a minimal level of protection.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.